How to Increase Your Range of Motion in Overhead Deep Squats (Video)

Overhead deep squats are a truly effective way to increase your overall range of motion. Get tips on how to increase your range of motion in overhead deep squats with help from a health and fitness expert in this free video clip.

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I'm Jeremy Shore for LIVESTRONG.COM, and this is how to increase your range of motion in overhead deep squats. It's hard for most people to perform a full range of motion squat due to inflexibility primarily in the calf complex. If your heels tend to lift when dropping into a squat, it is important to improve your ankle's range of motion. A combination of self myofascial release and stretching is the best way to accomplish this. Let me show you. So, first, we'll free up tension any muscular dysfunction by targeting the calf complex with the myofascial tool like the mash ball. We'll place the ball right or the, that myofascial tool right in the calf complex, we'll add some weight with the opposite leg by crossing over top. From here, I'm just going to kind of knead through the muscles, see if we find any tender areas that need a little extra attention. You may come down the center, come down the lateral side of the, of the calf. Then, maybe even on the inside of the calf. If we find any areas that were actually tender, you may want to hold on that point, relax, get some release in there. Do that on both calves. We'll spend about a minute on each calf and then, we'll move right into a, a resistance stretch for the calves. We'll come into a down dog position, pushing our heels into the mat, taking advantage of that pliability in that range of motion we now have. From here, we'll do a little bit of a calf raise, driving our chest through and up, coming up on our toes and then push as we resist with our, with our ankles and calves; push through the hands until the heels drop back down to the mat. Tucking the ears in between the arms, again, drive up under the toes and then resist as you push through the hands back into the heels, getting a good stretch. Repeat for eight to 12 repetitions. Next, strengthen the movement pattern by adding a counter weight, which will allow you to safely drop lower into the squat, also improving your range of motion. Perform two to three set of 12 to 15 reps. Progressively lighten the load of the counter weight until you can perform the deep squat properly without assistance. I'm Jeremy Shore for LIVESTRONG.COM, and this has been how to increase your range of motion in overhead deep squats.